Uzbekistan signs large deals with China, Russia

SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (Reuters) - Uzbekistan has signed deals worth $16 billion with China and $4.6 billion with Russia during their respective leaders' visits to the Central Asian nation for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

Deals with China include the construction of a China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, while projects with Russia are in machinery, chemicals, petrochemicals and geology sectors, ministry spokesman Yusuf Kabuljanov said.

Russia and China are major investors in Uzbekistan and the former Soviet republic's key trade partners.

They also lead the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional body which held a meeting this week in the Uzbek Silk Road city of Samarkand.

(Reporting by Mukhammadsharif Mamatkulov; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)